10 Things That Stop You from Getting Results from LinkedIn

Over the last decade, having trained thousands of business owners, experts, sales teams, and marketing professionals, I have come to realise that there are some key barriers that stop people from getting real results from LinkedIn.

I was inspired to write this today, as this morning I was running a live mentoring session with a group of amazing salespeople that I've been working with over the last 6 months. A number of these areas came up as challenges for them and every single one of these points you may have personally experienced in the past or maybe you are going through right now.

1. Lack of Time ?

It is a common misconception that you have to spend hours and hours on LinkedIn to get results from social selling. Often people will be so surprised when I share that I only spend a maximum of 10-20 minutes a day on LinkedIn. It's about spending your time very intentionally. I go in, I do my daily habits and I get the heck out again! If you leave LinkedIn open all day it can become a major distraction. It can be like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, you go in to post something and 2 hours later you are still there, reading posts, scrolling the newsfeed, handling messages, and before you know it your time is zapped away. I am a busy Mum with 3 kids, a growing team and I don't have loads of time. When you learn simple strategies that ensure that you can prospect, post, and engage every day, time is never the reason to stop you from getting results on this platform.

2. Fear of Being Too ‘Salesy’ ??

We've all had them, the cringey, pitchy, spammy messages that come through on a daily basis from people trying to use LinkedIn as a place to hunt for new business. Whether you are in a sales role or run your own business, you probably worry about the best way to message and outreach to potential prospects. What should I say? What about my professional reputation? What if they send me a negative response? How do I construct a message that starts a strong conversation with my IDEAL client? This fear of coming across too 'salesy' either stops you from prospecting in the first place or means you don't do enough of it to make it really count. After all you are now limited to a maximum of 100 invites per week so they have to count. Decision-makers are receiving up to 10 prospecting messages a day, that's 50 a week, 200 a month! The fact of the matter is, when you sell, you repel! Having a message structure that speaks to your target market, doesn't feel like a sales pitch and aligns with your personal values is key.

3. Imposter Syndrome ??

What is it? Self-doubt, fear of failure, and the constant feeling that you are not good enough. "Who will listen to me anyway?", "I feel like a total fraud, sooner or later, everyone's going to find out". This at some point in time has happened to us all and it's one of the most common barriers to success on LinkedIn. It can prevent you from getting on camera to produce videos that transfer your knowledge to your audience. It can lead you to procrastinate over content creation, it can stop you from posting entirely! Imposter Syndrome is the reason why many profiles you read don't match up to the really amazing person behind that profile, people don't like writing about themselves. It can lead you to worry about what other people think and is a real problem for many people. Sometimes you have to "feel the fear, and do it anyway" (a great book if you've never read it).

4. Confidence ??

Lack of confidence usually comes from a lack of competence. Not knowing what to do, or where to focus your efforts. Not being entirely familiar with LinkedIn and all of its intricacies. When you don't know how to connect with people or how to post the right content, and especially when you aren't seeing the results yet, it can lead to a lack of confidence in both the platform itself and the process. Many employees are not confident in what they can and cannot post due to draconian social media policies enforced by an HR team that does not understand the power of employee profiles and social selling. The depth of someone's knowledge in how to make LinkedIn work for their business and their role can affect confidence and this can stop people from getting results from their social selling efforts.

5. Don’t Know What to Post ??

One of the most common barriers is not knowing what to post. We've all been there, staring at the screen knowing we need to post but not sure what to write about. Many sales people are not creative, they see content as the job of marketing, but it's no longer good enough to simply reshare a piece of content from the Company page. Original content always performs better, and many people blame their lack of creativity or inability to write or perform in front of a camera as the reason for not posting. Simply put, content is EVERYWHERE! You can gain inspiration from every conversation you have, every lesson you learn, every photograph on your camera roll, every meeting in your diary, every book you read, every podcast you listen to, every event you attend... you just need to open your eyes and ears. When I train business owners and sales and marketing teams, I share 20 content themes and 11 types of posts, which when combined together gives you 220 different posts(!!). If you don't know what to post, you won't and that will impact both your visibilty and credibility and potentially stop you from getting the results you want.

6. Tried But It Doesn’t Work ??

"Social Selling is a Marathon, not a Sprint"

"Sam I've tried messaging but it doesn't work."

"Sam I've tried to build my brand but I never seem to get more than a few hundred views on a post."

"Sam I've tried to do LinkedIn but I don't ever get any leads."

"Sam my SSI score is over 70 but it's not working"

As with all social media platforms, it's about trying and testing things out that work for you. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Too many people come to LinkedIn expecting to get instant results, and it just doesn't work like that. The key is not to give up and keep trying until it does. I was on a live mentoring call with an existing client yesterday, who has been tweaking his target market and content over the last year and some of their posts were getting no traction and low engagement. Yesterday they were on my Live Q&A for my Academy members, beaming and delighted that they had finally achieved a post with over 8000 views and lots of engagement. Now they understand how to create emotion-filled, engaging posts that really speak to their IDEAL client. They have tried many things before in what is a tricky business to market, but they never gave up and they kept trying.

7. Don’t Know Where to Start ??♀?

Despite LinkedIn being around since 2003, there are still so many people here who are brand new to this platform and have no idea of its true power. LinkedIn has just had a record quarter, the number of people flocking here is sky-rocketing. That means there are a lot of members who just don't know where to start. If you are new here as a recent graduate, a student or job-seeker, or are in a new business development role, or have recently started a business, you may come up against this as a barrier. You simply don't know where to start. If that's you, I strongly recommend grabbing a copy of my book 'Linked Inbound' just search for it on Amazon, I have also added the link below.

8. Little or No Response to Messages ?

If you want to build a sales pipeline, then prospecting and outreach must form part of your daily habits. However, if your messages aren't hitting the mark, you just won't cut through the noise. When done well, your outreach should result in at least a 50% acceptance rate. When done well, your follow-up messages should result in at least a 3-8% response rate. If you are getting little or no response, it's time to take a long hard look at your message structure and how you are reaching out. Hyper-personalisation is key, as well as an approach which both builds the relationship and starts a sales conversation.

When you are getting little or no response to messages it is heart-breaking. It's a lot of effort to both find and target potential prospects for your pipeline, so the way you message as well as the format that you use is key. Our Sales Manager Lianne Saxton achieves a 74% response rate to connection requests and a 6.7% response rate to her prospecting messages, but when she uses personalised video it massively leaps to 40% conversion. How are you cutting through the noise? If you are getting little or no response there is a reason and it will stop you from getting results.

9. Inconsistency ??

"Long term consistency trumps short term intensity" Bruce Lee

There is one word that will help you get better results from social selling and that is CONSISTENCY. When you show up on a consistent basis, when you are visible on a consistent basis, when you prospect on a consistent basis, and when you engage on a consistent basis, you will achieve a steady and consistent flow of leads from LinkedIn. Fact. The biggest barrier to results from your social selling efforts is inconsistency. You get busy, you don't have a system, you don't set time aside every day, you make excuses, life gets in the way. Inconsistency will definitely hinder your results and stop you from getting leads,

10. No plan or strategy ????

Whether you are leading a sales team, managing your own sales pipeline or running your own business, you need to have a plan. It's not good enough to be sporadic, only paying attention to LinkedIn and Social Selling when you get a few minutes here and there. With the right plan, the right strategy, and the right daily, weekly, and monthly habits you can set yourself up for success. Building sales pipeline is a strategic activity, not a quick fix. Social selling takes time and consistency, but when it's done well you and your company can reap the rewards. No plan, and no strategy equals no results. What does your LinkedIn strategy look like? Is this what's stopping you?

Please comment below with any of these that resonate with you, chances are that now or in the past you have experienced at least one of these. What else would you add to the list?

About the Author

Sam Rathling is a LinkedIn Expert & Social Selling Strategist based out of Derby in the East Midlands. Sam and her team are on a mission to generate over ￡1billion in sales for their clients by 2025.?Sam is Best Selling Author of "Linked Inbound' and soon to be released 'Linked Outbound'.

Yahoo! Finance recently named her as a Top 10 Global LinkedIn? Expert to follow. She is considered to be a global authority on building a sales pipeline through LinkedIn?.?Since Jan 2019, Sam and her team have helped companies to generate in excess of ￡100 million in new business from this platform.?An Award-Winning Entrepreneur, best known for her practical, no-nonsense, easy to implement training.

Corporate Leaders hire Sam to work with their sales and marketing teams, to embed social selling throughout their organisation. Typically it's companies who have already invested in Sales Navigator, yet their sales team is just not getting the results they had hoped for. Whether it's introductory sessions or more in-depth programmes delivered over a number of months, Sam turns skeptics into believers and those who are already good social sellers into Social Selling Superstars!

As the Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) & Founder of Linked Inbound & the Pipeline 44 Group, she leads an amazing team of LinkedIn? ninjas. Sam runs a specialist prospecting agency delivering marketing campaigns to strategically build pipelines on behalf of her clients.?Prospect Pro is suitable for business owners who don't have the time or resources in-house to prospect consistently to generate a flow of leads from LinkedIn? every month.

SME's and Experts who want to learn Sam's social selling strategies become members of her Academy which includes membership and mentoring. This on-demand, video-based programme, includes monthly Live Q&A sessions with Sam as well as the most comprehensive LinkedIn and social selling online course available. Learn more about the Social Selling Academy here.

To get hold of a copy of?Sam's book, which is available on Kindle and in Paperback.?Click here. Sam is working on her next book, "Linked Outbound", if you have a social selling story to share, please send Sam a message and let her know your LinkedIn? success story!

You can reach Sam on?[email protected]?or by sending her a message on LinkedIn?, although be patient, it's a busy inbox (as you can imagine!).